Leadership Conference

Leadership training took place in three locations around the West Indies Mission during the month of February when zone and district leaders and trainers gathered in Guyana, Trinidad and St. Lucia. On February 15, President Gamiette met with missionaries leaders from Georgetown, Lagrange, Linden, and Canje Zones in Patentia, Guyana. On February 22, they gathered in Trinidad from Suriname, Trinidad North, Trinidad South, and Barbados Zones, where President Gamiette taught and celebrated his birthday with the missionaries, as well as with his family. Missionaries from the Island North, Island South, and French North Zones met in St. Lucia on February 23.

As they counseled together, missionaries and mission leaders discussed a variety of leadership topics including:

• Teaching Key Doctrine
• Helping others gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon
• Helping others meet the criteria for Baptism
• Better planning and preparation
• Trying new techniques with faith
• Search for revelation and opportunities to strengthen the vision for the area
• Working with members
• Creating and maintaining unity
• Enthusiasm
• Firm in Faith

Catching Up: Christmas in the West Indies Mission

In Paramaribo, Suriname, 16 Elders - along with Elder and Sister Jansen - spent their Christmas Day singing, visiting and eating with 14 residents of a local retirement home. These elderly men and women had already received wheelchairs from the Church in early December as part of a Humantiarian Service project orchestrated by Elder and Sister Angus, but had not visited the church which had provided this wonderful gift. A visit from the missionaries was a delightful – and unexpected - pleasure on this special day . . . and the Elders were deeply impressed by their loving responses.

Christmas Day 2010 in Trinidad dawned clear and warm. There were no halls decked, no turkey in the oven, no gifts stacked under the tree, but there was no shortage of Christmas spirit as missionaries - young and not-so-young - gathered at President and Sister Gamiette's home to celebrate the Savior's wondrous birth in a lowly manger in Bethlehem. The festivities included a delicious enchilada dinner prepared by Sister Wheeler.

Dessert involved feasting on Sister Gamiette's amazing brownies which include a secret ingredient she has mailed to her all the way from France. The day also included socializing and a lengthy, but fun, talent show. Elders Park, Hicken, Lake, Ackerman, Free, Dyson, Brague and Call sang, danced, played guitar or piano, performed a few back flips and entertained with a skit entitled "Purple Pancakes."

Christmas Day 2010 was beautiful and memorable, the food delicious and plentiful and the Spirit was in rich abundance.

Meet the Hendersons

Elder Clive and Sister Arlene Henderson, newly arrived from the Provo MTC, were not so much called “out of the blue” as “out of the family.” Over the past several years, Elder and Sister Henderson have enjoyed hearing the success stories of the West Indies Mission, so when the couple decided to put in their papers, her first cousins - former President Reid and Sister Diane Robison - told them there was nowhere else on earth they should serve.

The Henderson’s are the 18th and newest missionary couple currently serving in the West Indies Mission. Parents of six and grandparents of 11, both are former educators. She taught 2nd grade for more than 23 years. He taught high school math and science for 13 years, then established a successful cleaning and restoration business in his hometown. Together these residents of Idaho Falls, Idaho will spend the next 17 ½ months serving the saints on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent, where they will provide shadow leadership, fellowship to reactivate and strengthen new members, organize at least one annual temple trip and 1-2 humanitarian service projects on the island while also acting as an extension of the mission office and, as all other senior missionaries before them, performing “other duties as assigned.”

Meet the Gibsons

It was in the middle of an early February downpour when Elder Wilburn Charles (aka “Willie”) and Sister Julie Ann Gibson from Alamosa, Colorado, stepped off the plane and got their first look at Trinidad. His grin grew wider as the rainfall increased. The supersized elder with his characteristic wide suspenders felt he had finally come home after two bitter cold weeks at the Provo MTC and a few more – “trying against all odds” - to learn Spanish in the Dominican Republic. Their original call was as Humanitarian Service missionaries, but their new assignment on St. Lucia will find them providing shadow leadership, fellowshipping to reactivate and strengthen new members, organizing at least one annual temple trip and 1-2 humanitarian service projects on the island while also acting as an extension of the mission office and performing “other duties as assigned.”

Within an hour of their arrival on St. Lucia, the Gibsons had the remarkable experience of attending their first West Indies baptism.

In their working lives, Elder Gibson was a general contractor and Sister Gibson was the owner/manager of the Greyhound Bus station in her hometown. The 17th senior missionary couple currently serving in the West Indies Mission are the proud parents of six and even prouder grandparents of 19 (“with 2 more on the way”).

Incoming Missionaries

On Tuesday, February 8 and Wednesday, February 9, missionaries throughout the West Indies Mission were transferred to various new assignments which included a dozen missionaries going home . . . and nine incoming fresh from the MTC. Those arriving new elders are (from left next to Sister Delphine Gamiette) Elder Joshua Steele Barstow, Elder Michael Lee Kaelin, Elder David Benjamin Bastien (front), Elder Brenden Muli Makanesi, Elder Christopher Glen Yockey, Elder Daniel Mark Friebe, Elder Jake Adam Harris, Elder Gerald William Medley, Elder Jonathon Cruz Fuensalida and President Claude Gamiette. After a good night’s sleep, a full day of orientation – and a lunch of pizza and chocolate cake - the elders left for their various areas to begin their service to the Lord and the Saints of the West Indies Mission arriving safely in Martinique, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Barbados, Suriname and French Guiana.

Wheelchairs for Trinidad Children

On the site of the Princess Elizabeth School for Handicapped Children (established in 1953 to provide for the needs of children with polio and a variety of birth defects), representatives from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints handed over 203 wheelchairs, 47 “rough rider” chairs, dozens of canes and an assortment of walkers for children and adults. In a productive and longtime partnership with Missions International, the Church’s most recent humanitarian service project in the Trinidad/Tobago was the 7th donation of wheelchairs since 2002. These 250 chairs are among more than 300,000 distributed by the Church in 112 countries worldwide in the past 20 years – and, valued at $3,000,000.

Today's event was orchestrated by Elder and Sister Angus, WIM Humanitarian missionaries (from Vernal, Utah) with support from West Indies Mission President Gamiette and Trinidad Stake President Gould. In thanking the Church for their donation, a representative of Missions International said, “this is not a job. It is an act of love, commitment, dedication and frustration . . . and the joy of coming together to assist those in need.”

The celebration ended with a delicious box lunch and the announcement of the extension of the partnership between the Church and Missions International. The next project for the two humanitarian organizations will be a “first ever” Easter camp for 300 children from disadvantaged homes in Trinidad/Tobago.

Home with Honor

A dozen of the most valiant sons - and daughters - of Helaman have been honorably released to return home after serving the Lord and His children in the West Indies Mission. Newly baptized members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be forever grateful for the love and dedication of Elder Christopher Darian Jordan, Trevor Sean Olsen, Matthew Daniel Krause, Joshua Jacob Heiner, Matthew Samuel Welch, Canyon McKay Copa, Benjamin John Butler, Orin Moses and Sisters Bibi Zaleena Girdharry and Mimi Sheitoyan and Elder James and Sister Janiel Wheeler.

Our love and prayers go with you. You will always be remembered in the West Indies Mission . . . wherever you go in the world!